The Warhammer: Champions team have since made an official statement about the situation. The update mentions that the cash prizes were dropped for poor attendance and because players said that they wanted to enjoy the game in a more relaxed environment. The statement also said:

"We want to create play spaces where all players can join in and enjoy the game as we’ve seen at events like Pizza and Play, as well as future events like Trial of the Champions in June and our on-going Blood and Glory series. "

The announcement was met with a certain amount of anger from fans on the game's discord server. One, in particular, called the excuse that players only wanted a relaxed environment 'broadly inaccurate', and saying that the lack of signups for events was due to poor marketing not a lack of demand. Other fans called the numbers a 'smokescreen', saying that the removal of cash prizes was already planned before the poor attendance at the first City Championship event.

Update

Kit Wright of ABZ Games, Aberdeen shared with us the following information:

"OK. So all cash prizes have been removed globally. This is due to poor attendance at the NY event on the 4th. Most of the events have less than 20 players signed up they were hoping for 50 minimums.

This is just the city championship. Theyve not decided on whether they are removing cash from the ukge event.

As for lightseekers. They have pulled all funds for gold tier events. So no cash prizes there either. They have scrapped the invitationals. But wouldn't go on the record of it was about "invitation farming".

Now. That is just cash prizes pulled. They still have all physical products as prizes. They are also acquiring more other physical prizes. Promos, signed art etc.
As for the future of both games, the new set of LS has left the printers and they are getting ready for pre-release statements etc. New set of champions is on its way q4 or q1 2020"

and Discussing his thoughts on the change Wright stated:

"I feel its actually a correct move. Maybe a bit early for that level of investment in tournaments. We are still honoured to be hosting it and we are still super psyched for it. We intend it to be an amazing day for all the players. On a personal note, with the removal of cash prize I have been told I can play and smash face now."

Original Story

Playfusion, operators of popular wargaming-based TCG Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions, quietly dropped cash prizes from their upcoming tournament events. The changes were announced over at the Champions discord server.

The upcoming City Championships pits 16 cities' best players against each other to see who can come out on top. The events were initially advertised as having an impressive prize of £750 for 1st place ($1000 in the US). The first UK event is taking place this coming Saturday 18th May, meaning that the announcement was made barely 4 days before the event which they were concerning.

Many fans on the games discord server expressed disappointment at the short amount of notice for the change, as well as the apparent lack of direction they felt that Playfusion had for their game. One fan, going by Sherlock Clones on Discord, put it this way:

"think its a combination of disappointment and overall sense that PF doesn't know what direction they want to go. Which leaves us kinda up in the air as to what we want to do and now trust has been lost. Who wants to invest in a game when they might say one thing, then a few weeks down the road pull the same stunt"

So far no official announcement has been made by Playfusion, but it is seeming like the past 12 hours has been a pretty difficult time for the company's reputation. As well as dropping cash prizes from Champions the company announced the cancellation of every Gold Event for Lightseekers, another TCG, for the entire rest of the year. At the time of writing, there is no clear indication of the troubles which the company is facing. However, there are rumors floating around the discord that around the same time several team members may have departed from the company.

We have reached out to PlayFusion for comment and will update the story accordingly.

What do you think about the changes to the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Champions City Championship events? Do you think that Playfusion had a duty to inform their players sooner than they actually did? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.

About the Author

I'm Will and I'm a UK-based writer who went to film school before realizing writing was more fun than film-making. I've written for a number of gaming sites over the past few years of my writing career, including Cliqist, Gaming Respawn, and TechRaptor. I also produce videos for my own channel (Mupple) as well as Cliqists popular YouTube channel. I've covered industry events such as EGX and am hoping to break into narrative game writing in the future.